1st advent – C / Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

1. Today is advent season. This is a short season in the Church calendar for it is an
immediate preparation for Christmas. And each year, the Pope declares a “year-of-the”
kind of theme for the whole year and it usually starts on Advent. And this year is the
extraordinary Jubilee year of great mercy with the theme “Merciful Like the
Father” (Misericordes Sicut Pater).

Yet at the same time, in the Philippines, we also continue with our yearly theme as a
novena for the preparation of the 500 years of Christianity in the country by 2021. And
this year is the year of the Family and the Eucharist.

2. And since the general theme of advent is WAIITING, i went back to some of my
experience waiting.

One of the most challenging experiences i had was working with the street children. I
was then assigned in Tuloy sa Don Bosco foundation still in Makati that every Saturday
we go to the Star City, not to take the rides but to encourage and convinced street
dwellers to join us or go back to their families.

3. It was not only us waiting for Saturday to arrive (because we were students of the
theology still that time, so our apostolate is weekend) but the kids too wait for us
because of the food we bring and i guess because “may matino silang kausap.”

[narrate the story of the boy who almost lost his thumb]

4. In the book by David Ricoh, a former Jesuit, he says that there are 5 immutable
givens or 5 things we cannot change:
1. Everything changes and ends
2. Things do not always go according to plan
3. Life is not always fair
4. Pain is part of life
5. People are not loving & loyal all the time

5. And I think one of the sense of that book is really we need lots of patience when
we deal with life. It is also the same thought that Jesus would like us reflect not only
today but the rest of our life when two second coming will come, his coming, that is, we
have to be patient with God because his ways are not his ways… and he knows how to
deal with us, and of our reunion with the rest of our brood in heaven.

6. Jesus reminds us in today’s gospel, TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEART. And when we
say heart, we need to be patient not to HURT our HEARTS lest we become to impatient
with people, with work, with life, and with God.
7. As we start the year of mercy, the year of the family, and the year of the eucharist…
three everyday realities that we live and are part of humanity, let us practice mercy
especially in the home.

When someone makes a mistake… do you forgive? For us who receive the Eucharist
Sunday after Sunday, is it not called also as COMMUNION, and it connotes family.

Why does God allow you to receive his body and blood in the first place?
Because he wants us to know, feel, and see that what we are receiving is not just bread
but a person who lived his life full of MERCY and COMPASSION, a person who even in
death did not complain, and even in his resurrection, siguro sabihin niya…yan I offered
my life to you…sana naman magbago ka na? But in reality, there are a good number who
found him but still there are a good number who are still in the dark.

8. That is why every Advent season we continue to light the candles, to allow Jesus to
flourish and be seen through our actions as his disciples.